Airborne Deployment

You may choose not to deploy your AD troopers during the Deployment Phase, keeping them off the game table until you decide to deploy them during your Active Turn.

As long as they are off the game table, AD troopers add no Orders to their respective Order Pools. However, an undeployed AD trooper still generates an Order usable only to deploy with Airborne Deployment.

To deploy using any Level of the Airborne Deployment Special Skill, the user must declare an Entire Order and expend his own Order, which was not added to the Order Pool during the Order Count phase of the Active Turn.

Troopers using Airborne Deployment cannot deploy Prone or in base to base contact with another model, Marker, mission objective or piece of scenery.

AIRBORNE DEPLOYMENT LEVEL 1. PARACHUTIST

This unit has been trained to parachute or fast-rope from heliborne vehicles immediately before combat in order to find an alternative point of ingress into the battlefield and flank the enemy forces.

PARACHUTIST

ENTIRE ORDER

Optional.

REQUIREMENTS

During the Deployment Phase, mentally divide the edges of the play area down the middle into eight segments (two on each side).

Then, choose one of these segments and write it down in secret for later verification. For the rest of the game, all your troopers with the AD: Parachutist Special Skill deploy through that segment of the play area's edge.

EFFECTS

By spending one Entire Order, the user of this Special Skill may deploy anywhere on the segment of the play area's edge secretly chosen during the Deployment Phase.

When deploying this way, the base of the model or Marker must be in contact with the edge of the play area.

When you place a model — but not a Marker — on the battlefield, you are required to share all Open Information relative to that trooper.

Table Areas

Use this diagram as reference when you divide the play area's edge into segments. Troopers with AD: Parachutist or AD: Airborne Infiltration could enter the battlefield through any point of segments 1, 2, 3 or 4; or through the halves of segments 5 or 8 that are outside the enemy Deployment Zone.

Troopers with AD: Tactical Jump may enter through any point of any segment, even those inside the enemy Deployment Zone.

AIRBORNE DEPLOYMENT LEVEL 2. AIRBORNE INFILTRATION

Troopers with the AD: Airborne Infiltration Special Skill are experienced parachutists who feel most at home in incursion operations, behind enemy lines.

AIRBORNE INFILTRATION

ENTIRE ORDER

Optional.

REQUIREMENTS

EFFECTS

In your Active Turn, when you decide to deploy one of your troopers with this Special Skill, mentally divide the edges of the play area down the middle into eight segments (two on each side).

By spending one Entire Order, the user of this Special Skill may deploy anywhere on the segment of the play area's edge of your choice.

Place your AD: Combat Jump trooper anywhere inside the Drop Zone, thus selecting your preferred deployment location. The entirebase of the model or Marker must be inside the Circular Template of the Drop Zone.

Then, the trooper makes a PH Roll. If the trooper passes the Roll, he successfully deploys on his chosen location. AROs are generated taking only that location into account.

If the trooper fails his PH Roll, make a Dispersion Roll, placing the center of the Dispersion Circular Template on top of the center of the trooper's base. The result of the Dispersion Roll determines the troop's effective deployment location. AROs are generated taking only that location into account.

When you place a model - but not a Marker - on the battlefield, you are required to share all Open Information relative to that trooper.

Combat Jump and Coordinated Orders

If you declare a Coordinated Order to deploy using AD: Combat Jump, all participants must use the same Drop Zone, but their PH Rolls and possible Dispersions are resolved individually.

Combat Jump and AI Beacon

If a trooper with the AI Beacon Special Skill (see Infinity Human Sphere) suffers a Dispersion while attempting to use AD: Combat Jump in its Deployment Phase, and that Dispersion takes it out of the play area, consider that trooper lost as a casualty for Retreat! and Victory Points purposes.

AIRBORNE DEPLOYMENT LEVEL 5. SUPERIOR COMBAT JUMP

Combatants with this level of Airborne Deployment are exceptionally gifted skydivers who always have a firm control over the jump course and a backup plan in case something goes wrong while in midair.

SUPERIOR COMBAT JUMP

ENTIRE ORDER

Optional.

REQUIREMENTS

EFFECTS

This Level has the same effects and limitations as the previous one, with one exception: if the trooper fails his PH Roll to deploy and the subsequent Dispersion takes him out of the play area or into a location where he cannot deploy, then he may deploy in any point of his Deployment Zone spacious enough to fit the Drop ZoneCircular Template.

AIRBORNE DEPLOYMENT LEVEL X. TACTICAL JUMP

Troopers with AD: Tactical Jump are not only outstanding parachutists, but also savvy infiltrators with a honed tactical sense.

TACTICAL JUMP

ENTIRE ORDER

Optional.

REQUIREMENTS

EFFECTS

In your Active Turn, when you decide to deploy one of your troopers with this Special Skill, mentally divide the edges of the play area down the middle into eight segments (two on each side).

By spending one Entire Order, the user of this Special Skill may deploy anywhere on the segment of the play area's edge of your choice.

When deploying this way, the base of the model or Marker must be in contact with the edge of the play area.

When you place a model — but not a Marker — on the battlefield, you are required to share all Open Information relative to that trooper.

This Level does not grant its user any numerical Levels of this Special Skill.

AD: Tactical Jump and Coordinated Orders

Troopers with AD: Tactical Jump may participate in a Coordinated Order with troopers with Levels 1 or 2 of Airborne Deployment.

However, in that case, the AD: Tactical Jump trooper must enter the battlefield through the same segment chosen for the rest of participants.

It seems apparent that the tactical and strategic possibilities of airborne deployments hinge much more crucially on their army's technological acumen, mediated by the specific budgetary and supply restrictions of the theater of war, than on the skill of their soldiers. The results expected from a force with access only to atmospheric and low-altitude aircraft — namely fast-rope insertions and HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) or HAHO jumps — are not comparable to those of spacecraft with supra-atmospheric and orbital launch capabilities. This technological superiority translates into a tangible advantage in terms of precision and flexibility in a combat situation. Nevertheless, the realities of field work and the local conditions (adverse meteorology, lack of aerial supremacy or intel) may necessitate more archaic methods of deployment. This is one of the reasons why modern airborne units incentivize holistic training programs that prepare operatives for all possible circumstances and modes of ingress, trusting that versatile soldiers will go above and beyond to fulfill their missions regardless of the operational conditions.

Q: When an AI Beacon suffers Dispersion, the rule states that it is destroyed if the Dispersion takes it off the game table, but what happens when the Dispersion causes it to land in the enemy Deployment Zone? Would it be destroyed or deployed at the edges of its Deployment Zone?

A: An AI Beacon is only destroyed when a Dispersion causes it to leave the game table. If the Dispersion causes the landing to be in the enemy Deployment Zone, the AI Beacon will deploy normally at the point established by that Dispersion.